


Carol of the Green Lady and the Maker

by lferion



Series: The Grey Book of Erebor [12]
Category: TOLKIEN J. R. R. - Works, The Hobbit - All Media Types, The Hobbit - J. R. R. Tolkien, The Silmarillion and other histories of Middle-Earth - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: Academese, F/M, Gen, HobbitAdvent, Poetry, Structured Form
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-09
Updated: 2013-12-09
Packaged: 2018-01-04 06:25:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 449
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1077671
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lferion/pseuds/lferion
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Written for day 9 of Hobbit Advent, prompt: Carols</p>
            </blockquote>





	Carol of the Green Lady and the Maker

* * *

Varda is the Star-Kindler, Great Lady of the Heavens, but to the Dwarves, children of Aulë, Yavanna is the Queen. She is to them a stern figure, regal and and distant, for while Mahal is their Father, Yavanna is not their mother. This is particularly the case with the Longbeards, the Dwarves of the Line of Durin, for Durin woke, first and alone, walking long and far before ever he found the one he chose to share the rest of his life with, the Mother of the Longbeards, where all the other Mothers and Fathers woke together. And so, among the Dwarves, it is Yavanna of the Trees that they look to for judgment, and Mahal the Maker for mercy and comfort.

Music is a key part of the Dwarves relationship with the Valar, and there are songs relating to all of them in one fashion or another. By far the greatest number concern Aulë (Óli in Sindarin), or Mahal as he is named in their tongue, and a respectable number involve Yavanna, or in the Sindarin, Ivon. Very few however, feature both of them. The one presented below is the only one which has made its way into the Common tongue, and that only incompletely, as the extant verses speak only of the transition from Autumn to Winter, and not the complementary transition from Winter to Spring. Some scholars speculate that a second refrain is also missing, touching on Ivon's offer or welcome to Óli in Summer, but the evidence for that is very scant. 

The Carol of the Green Lady and the Maker

Lady green, your creatures prosper  
Running swift or standing tall  
Coming cold their sleep doth foster  
Welcome find within this hall

Burden A:  
 _Queen of flower, grain and tree  
Will you heed the Maker's plea?_

Maker lord, not yet does Winter  
Rule the land with ice and snow  
Nor will I your stone doors enter  
My ripe fields leave for dark below

Burden B:  
 _Smith of Mountains, Maker thee  
Heart-song shape thy Queen to see_

Lady gold, the storm winds gather  
Harvest-tide is here at last  
'Neath my hills strong built is shelter  
Comfort find against the blast

Burden A

Builder lord, as yet the Hunter  
Stands not in the evening skies  
I'll greet the lord of horn and antler  
Ere I see aught that you devise

Burden B

Lady brown, the night grows bitter  
From thy trees the leaves have flown  
On ice-rimed earth the hail doth pelter  
I yearn for thee beneath the stone

Burden A

Crafter lord, no more I'll wander  
In willow mead or meadows wide  
'Till the Herdsman strides in splendor  
I will at thy hearth abide

Burden B


End file.
